N. | One Or The Other

Question: Do you still celebrate your birthday with gifts? Vote on the poll on the right please! Thank you for your participation!

Isn’t life just full of distractions? First, to better understand where I’m going with this, let us look at the definition of distraction. I like to use Google definition, they always have the most definite definitions.

Google defines distraction (from wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn) as:

• mental turmoil; “he drives me to distraction”
• an obstacle to attention
• beguilement: an entertainment that provokes pleased interest and distracts you from worries and vexations
• the act of distracting; drawing someone’s attention away from something; “conjurers are experts at misdirection”

I tend to like the third one up there. An entertainment, it says. That is quite true in my case. I have spend the past couple of weeks mostly enjoying my Playstation Portable wreaking havoc in GTA (Grand Theft Auto; A game where you play the role of a mobster.) I wanted to start reading, but I didn’t because I was busy playing the game.

I wanted to write down some ideas, get started with some tutorials I have waiting for me, and maybe start writing some code and playing around with software. I didn’t do that because I was busy playing that video game. Not only that, I was also watching some movies and anime. Some of you may think, why is this a distraction? It is normal to want to play and have fun when you have nothing better to do. Here, the real question is asked:

What are they distracting me from?

For those who have these items in their plans, then we can consider them a part of the plan, and not really a distraction. For someone like me, who has other plans in mind, I could call these a distraction. For a person who does not have writing and reading as part of the plan could call those specific actions distractions. We can see here that a distraction, is something that draws our attention away from our original plan.

All around us there are distractions of all types. Entertainment does not end, you can never run out of music, movies, video games, TV shows, TV programs, games, devices, gadgets, books, places to go, things to do, people to talk to, web sites to visit, things to download, etc. How many of these are distractions, and how many are quite necessary for our plan, whatever our plan may be?

What distractions do you have in your own life? How do you deal with distractions?

Popularity: 50% [?]

The Oxford program of career change is a career counceling program focused on helping you achieve your dreams in terms of trying to find out the career that would fit you best.

One of the exercises in the program is writing down your commitments. It is said that commitments and wants are different, and that difference is the action actually taken to reach the objective you have in mind.

I have written out my commitments and promises, and wanted to share them with you. Write down your own promises, share them with the people around you, and put them in a visible place to remind yourself to always take action towards what you want.

This is what I have written:

My promise to myself is to live my life to my fullest potential. I will start by completing this program. I promise to conquer my procrastination and push myself whenever I need to be pushed to keep on moving. I promise to always be positive and optimistic in everything that I do in my life. I promise to always enhance my strong points and characteristics. I also promise to identify all my weak points and work to fix them. For all those weak points that cannot be fixed, I promise to find a way to use them positively in my life. I promise to live in harmony with myself, my family, my friends, all those who I love and the world around me. I promise to appreciate and recognize all that is good, and remind myself of all the promises I have made and will keep forever.

I will give myself the chance to experience new opportunities. I will not be put down by the negativity around me. I promise to make my own path if I have to. I will find my ideal profession and work that I love to do. I will keep going in my search for as long as it takes. I know I will only be truly happy doing something I love doing. This is my promise.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Popularity: 55% [?]

A second, was always a second never more or less. So what changed? We have cars that should take us to our destination faster, but because of traffic we usually spend hours on the road.

Has life become so complicated that there are just so many things for one person to do, that it takes up most of their time? In actuality, if we remove all social norms, and normality out of the equation and we look at how we spend our lives, what in truth becomes necessary is only but a tiny fraction of what we do. Everything else is more or less a filler.

Popularity: 31% [?]

In July, I posted about being who you want to be, and that the limits imposed by the mind should not affect who or what you want to be. Today, I come to you with a different approach to being something you always wanted to be.

Imagine yourself in a small room with gray walls, without a door or a window. The thought is depressing I know, but in this example that is your world. You do not have access to anything outside this room. Neither do you know if there exists anything beyond this room. All you know exists, is you, and the room.

Now imagine you have a television in your room [Note: For you smart alecks, ignore the logical need for electricity, a power plant, a camera.. etc. For this argument let us assume that they are not needed.]. It is on. You can see someone else in a similar room but with a different color wall. You may start to wonder what it would be like to be in that other room surrounded by those different colored walls.

Your need to experience the other room may increase, and so you try to search for an exit. There must be a way out shouldn’t there? You investigate every square inch of the room looking for something different that might be a clue to an exit. You find something that looks like a seam. You dig at it with your nails and you follow through the edge and trace a door in the wall.

The door may lead you someplace, it may lead you to the room and it may not, but you decide you need to get out of there anyway because you are ready for something different. You embrace the idea that you can try to be in a different place.

This is what life is at the moment. Your friends, your home, your job and regular hangouts are your little gray room. The television is all the media you have access to from radios to television shows to magazines to the Internet.

The world is much bigger and larger than you imagine. There are possibilities out there, that have not even been documented on television or on paper. There are places that have not been mentioned in mainstream media (or have not come close to being publicized).

The television shows and programming we receive on all our media devices dictate what we know about the world. If a news article is published about an important event, we are bound to believe it because of trust. However, we do not quite experience the actual event. Sometimes we do not wish to experience them because they are terrible events, and other times they are joyous and wonderful.

You do not have to be an engineer if you do not want to. You do not have to be a doctor if you do not want to. You can be anything you want to be. What is stopping you? If it is your family, then that is an issue you will have to tackle on your own. They would want to wish the best for you and would want you to have a better future. Would a parent really deny their daughter or son a chance at living the life they want to live in accordance with certain values? Would you deny your children that chance?

Change is almost always difficult. The world is much bigger than we can imagine, and the opportunities are out there. There are enough people who need help, there is enough money in the world to go around, and there are plenty of people who would be happy to have crossed paths with you.

Do not place any physical boundaries. There are countries out there who would accept you the way you are, and would allow you to do what you love to do.

Do not place any mental boundaries. They say you can do anything if you set your mind to it. The idea here is that you can do anything you can imagine, however silly or strange or odd or unconventional it may seem.

Do not place any emotional boundaries. This may be the hardest to overcome if you decide to make a huge change. We only live once, only once. You may never have a chance to live the way you REALLY want to just by fantasizing about it.

What you see and hear may give you an idea of what you may expect, but the only truth that really matters is experiencing something first hand and being there when and while it happens.

P.S. Every once in a while I may post a long post. For those who love shorter posts (I know who you are.. I know where you live..) you may take the time to read this in stages. Do not feel discouraged. Give it a shot. If you really do not want to read the whole thing, you may skip to the last 4 short paragraphs.

P.S.S. This is the post I was talking about (limiting oneself) a couple of days ago when I had Nothing To Say.

Popularity: 53% [?]

When pursuing a relationship, it has been said that nice guys end up with nothing. They mostly end up being friends rather than having a relationship with the person they are interested in.

Nice guys finish last.

The original quote was related to a baseball game, however in terms of a relationship, what’s your take on it? True? False? Why?

Popularity: 56% [?]

How many times have you heard that? We all change, it is a part of growing up. We are not who we were 5 years ago, or at least we hope we’re not — we’d want to be better wouldn’t we? Are you who you were 5 years ago? 4 years ago? 3, 2, 1 year ago? If you sit right now and think about the stages you’ve been through in your life, and how much you’ve changed.. what do make of it?

At 2 years old…

…You were a baby, if you can remember that far.. then you’ve got one great memory (masha2′alla).

At 6 years old…

…You went to school for the first time. You remember that because there’s something you can never forget about that school. Maybe it was a teacher, a classroom, an event, some friends, or even the lunch you had!

At 9 years old…

…You are loving your birthday parties. You got tons of toys and birthday presents. You watch cartoons most of the time. If you’ve done your homework you even get treated to something good.

At 12 years old…

…You’re half way through middle school, you loved to play, or read, or do something special. You had a passion, something that you loved a lot.

At 15 years old…

…You’re no longer a child but a teenager. You’ve hit puberty and started to notice the other sex more. You have your first, second, or third crush. You did boyish things if you were a boy, and did girly things if you were a girl. Very teenage-like.

At 18 years old…

…You’ve graduated high school, or about to. You are even more interested in the other gender. You are also into another type of passion. For guys, it is mostly either sports or geeky stuff. For girls, it is mostly … [some help here girls?] alright, anyway you get the point ;P

At 21 years old…

…You’re definitely no longer a child, you’re probably in college or working someplace. You’re more involved in society, maybe even more interested in men’s stuff now. Girls are interested in women’s stuff. However both are more into their friends now. They’d rather spend a whole day with them, than with family or at any work/school.

At 24 years old…

…You’ve graduated and ready to face the world. You imagine life to be a huge endless field. All this time you’ve been running through a passageway — the entrance to the real world. Soon you’ll be working or studying some more but you know you’ve become mature now, and people can tell — especially relatives.

Along the way, some have kept their friends since they were in their early stages. There are others who have moved on, or moved away, and met different people, and made new friends. For some of us, the people whom we just met are our friends, and will probably stay that way for a long time to come.

You change, your friends change, everyone changes (to the better I hope). How do you cope when a close person to you starts changing? You gradually noticed the signs, but you ignored them, then soon enough, you know you were right, and the truth is that this person has decided to move on to better and bigger things in their life. This new life cannot quite accommodate you as it did before, you start losing touch and soon enough you’re barely together.

Popularity: 46% [?]

Do I believe what I want to believe? I hear things, many things, and sometimes I wonder if I only believe the things that I want to believe, to preserve my sanity probably, or my composure. Don’t worry this isn’t a depressed post, it is more of a questions post. One that I seem to always have a conversation with myself about. What about you, do you sometimes find yourself believing only the things you want to believe?

Yosh..

Ki o tsukete..

Popularity: 59% [?]

A homeless mother of four children has no way of feeding them. She has asked for help, but without avail, she is left in the wild to care for her children alone without money, food, or shelter. She fears for her children’s health and would never eat out of a garbage can, but she has no other choice — until — she sees the opportunity to take some food from a rich family that lives close by. She does the crime, to save herself and her children. In the process, she accidentally breaks some very valuable kitchenware.

The women is caught by the police. If you were the judge, would you prosecute this woman for her criminal behavior? Would you let her go, because she had no other choice?

This is only an example where Justice and Mercy clash. What do you have to say about this? What should be done?

Popularity: 35% [?]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion regardless of who they are. Also each person is entitled to their own belief of what is right and what is wrong. One of the most debated subject in philosophy is the notion of right and wrong and the idea of an absolute truth. Some believe that there is no absolute truths and that everything is relative. However, others belief is an absolute right and wrong.

An example of this would be the situation where a group of people are together, and there is no leader or a form of law present. If someone in the group poses a threat, would it be right to single them out? Some believe there is, in order to preserve the survival and wellness of the group. Others believe we should not judge others based on what they are like.

If indeed we are entitled to our own opinions, do we not also have the right to change our minds based on what we believe? Our beliefs can change and thus we can change our own opinions as how we see fit.

Hypocrisy is the act of condemning or calling for the condemnation of another person when the critic is guilty of the act for which he demands that the accused be condemned.

source: Wikipedia: Hypocrisy

In the previous example, if the person who had posed a threat had a change in belief and another person emerged as a threat, and the previous person asked for the new threat to be singled out, do we say that he is a hypocrite?

Popularity: 29% [?]

Looks like today is going to be a good day enshalla! The morning is beautiful. The streets were crowded but that was alright, nothing too horrible. Did you know you could reduce driving congestion related stress by listening to some good music? Yep, it works!

I was contemplating the topic of my next mini-discussion here. I was first thinking about talking about hypocrisy. This is one of the deep subjects that gets a lot of people in trouble, confusion, and probably wars and fights.

The other subject that came across my mind was justice versus mercy. I understand that probably any sane person would decide on one based on the situation. Any argument which has no clear evidence will lead to pick either justice or mercy. Here is where it will get interesting.

I’m not sure yet which topic to pick. What do you think? Which should I pick?

As for now, I’ll leave you with a groovy song. You better get your butts off your seats and start shakin’.

Click the play button to play the song. If you want to know how I added the song, check out MyFlashFetish.com. :)

Popularity: 45% [?]